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So we had a hectic week wherein I got sick with allergies or some such (the Husband has a cold complete with fever/chills, my body processes differently so who knows what kind of crud is in my system), visited some buffalo (and had an argument on whether or not buffalo burgers actually contain buffalo meat, my vote: no), got attacked by frogs at numerous junctures (seriously, I’m beginning to think I’m being sought out for a kiss), and just generally got run down and around by the chits. While I was able to chip away a bit at my reading list, the chits did most of their reading to each other. As I’m not even sure what material they read when they hide out as they tend to do, I’ll just write on what we read together.
Squish: A Wetland Walk by Nancy Luenn
This book was a nice mix of education with entertainment. Fin liked the animals but Dul was majorly opposed to the location of a swamp. Funny for a boy who gets dirty at every chance. Belle couldn’t have been less interested. I embellished, telling them what different creatures did and attempting to pull them into the story but the fact remains, I was more into it than they were.
Scaredy Squirrel at Night by Melanie Watts was loved by three out of three chits. Scaredy Squirrel is scared to sleep because he has nightmares. So he goes through a whole bunch of work in order to not go to sleep. He also sets up traps for the scary things in his bad dreams. The chits got a kick out of Scaredy being afraid of unicorns (“But that’s a unicorn!” Dul exclaimed with disbelief) and just generally loved the story all around. The story doesn’t read in a straight line but jumps around on the page, which kept the kids entertained. And the humor seemed to be right up their alley. As for me, I wish I’d had this book a year or so ago when we were going through a bad period of nightmares. It brings humor to the situation and shows that what some might find scary, others might find cute and fluffy, thus taking the danger out of the situation. All around cute book that I’ll definitely pick up if I see it at my local used bookstore in the future.
Arthur’s Family Vacation by Marc Brown
Arthur is a favorite in our household, whether he comes in book or television form. So I knew when I ordered this book that it would be a hit. Arthur starts out being bummed about the trip, he’s going to miss going to camp with his best friend Buster. He attempts to wheedle his mom and dad into bringing Buster with them, but is told that it is a family trip and that is that. Then when the family arrives there are numerous problems. The motel isn’t close to the beach like its name would claim, the pool is the size of their bathtub, and it rains all the time. Luckily, Arthur saves the day by planning cool family activities to do each day once he thinks about how there was fun stuff to do at camp even when it was raining. The chits were highly amused by Arthur’s trip to Gatorville but I didn’t fill them in on why D.W. was afraid of the “Jaws” movie (let’s just say that I developed a minor issue with the ocean after seeing this as a child. And then “Piranha” ruined lakes and rivers for me. It was not a good time.) All in all, just another book that we adored from Marc Brown. And straight onto the wishlist it goes…
This book has few words (generally one per page) but the artistry more than makes up for it. The colors are rich and the pictures are detailed. What isn’t said in words is definitely spoken from the images. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So this book should have around a 15,000 word count, no objections. I just can’t put into words the incredible feel of the imagery used in this piece of artwork so I’ll let it be summed up by what Fin breathed when I opened to the first page:
“Wow…”
The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris
We read this book a couple of years ago but I love reading books about books and libraries, so I ordered it again. It wasn’t a disappointment on the second read. Melvin is the main character in this book. He doesn’t actually live in the library but he goes there every day after school. Throughout the book three librarians, Marge, Betty, and Leeola, support and help him. When he accidentally sets loose eighty-seven bugs in the library what do they do? Catalog them of course! Melvin gets a job at the library when he’s in high school and then after college he comes back to work at the library, and help another little boy just like him! The chits got a kick out of this one, especially when Melvin set the bugs loose and instead of getting in trouble, got help! I’ve renewed my decision to add this to our personal collection in the near future.
We got a bit behind on our reading last week so I’ve pushed the leftovers from last week’s list to this week. Happy reading!